Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a vehicle occupant protection device, an airbag control method, and an airbag folding method.
Related Art
Many kinds of devices equipped with airbags are known (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 2009-56836, H9-39625, 2004-314797 and 2008-114631). For example, JP-A No. 2009-56836 discloses an occupant restraint device equipped with an airbag. In this occupant restraint device, when a collision is predicted, plural baseplates project from front face sides of side bolsters at the left and right of a seatback. Then, if the collision is detected within a predetermined duration, airbags inflate from distal end portions of the baseplates towards sides thereof at which an occupant is located, sandwiching the torso area of the occupant from left and right so as to restrain the torso area. JP-A No. H9-39625 discloses a child safety seat for a car that is equipped with an airbag. In this child safety seat for a car, when a collision occurs, respective airbags inflate toward the front from a pair of seat side walls. A belt whose two ends are fixed to the seat is connected to outer faces of the airbags. The belt retains the pair of airbags from the front. Thus, a child occupant is protected.
However, because a structure based on the conventional technology recited in JP-A No. 2009-56836 is a structure in which the airbags restrain an occupant by sandwiching the occupant from left and right, it is possible that the occupant may slip through between the left and right airbags. Thus, there is scope for improvement. Moreover, in a structure based on the conventional technology recited in JP-A No. H9-39625, the waist area of an occupant is held by the airbags when a collision occurs. Therefore, if a similar structure were applied to a seat on which an adult occupant sits, the adult occupant having a larger weight of the lower half of the body than a child occupant, the lower half of the adult occupant might slip through at the lower side of the airbags. Thus, there is scope for improvement.